Latest Dev Installer for visual studio 2012

I love ptvs but I need to have python snippets I noticed that was fixed recently. I see it has been incorporated into installerd for more recent versions of vs. I am stuck using vs 2012 any chance you would post a dev version of the installer for 2012 in the
downloads section so I could use python snippets. I tried to build the installer myself with no success.

It looks like you downloaded a ZIP of the source code, which probably means that Windows has marked all of the files as coming from the Internet Zone. If you right-click the BuildRelease.ps1 file in Explorer and choose Properties, there's probably an Unblock
button there that you'll need to click.

If you don't see that, can you show the error message from when you just try and run the script?

(FWIW, I think you're going to hit more problems, since we may have added code that won't compile for VS 2012 already. Snippets are probably fine, but we've got other changes since then too.)

I don't think you can pass a script filename to Get-Help like this. But you can get help by invoking it with -?:

PS C:\Projects\pytools\Python\Setup> BuildRelease.ps1 -?

Can you tell what errors you're getting when running the script? Note that you need to run it from the VS command prompt for the version of VS that you're building this for, otherwise it won't find the build tools.

You might also need to change the execution policy to Unrestricted...

Regarding the toolchain, I wonder if you are aware that it's possible to have different VS versions installed side by side, and for C++ projects to use one version of VS to edit and debug them, but still build them with toolchain from the other VS (so you end
up using a different C++ runtime etc)? This is in project settings, under Configuration Properties -> General -> Platform Toolset. This way you get all the UI, editing, speed etc improvements of a newer version of VS while still building exactly the
same binaries as before.

C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\Python\Setup>powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned .\BuildRelease.ps1 C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a
7f844a8e\BuildOutput -vstarget 11.0 -skiptests
You must provide a value expression on the right-hand side of the '-' operator.
At C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\Python\Setup\BuildRelease.ps1:394 char:83

C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\Python\Setup>powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted .\BuildRelease.ps1 C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a
7f844a8e\BuildOutput -vstarget 11.0 -skiptests
You must provide a value expression on the right-hand side of the '-' operator.
At C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\Python\Setup\BuildRelease.ps1:394 char:83

PS C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\Python\Setup> BuildRelease.ps1 -?
The term 'BuildRelease.ps1' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path
was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:17

Suggestion [3,General]: The command BuildRelease.ps1 was not found, but does exist in the current location. Windows PowerShell doesn't load commands from the cu
rrent location by default. If you trust this command, instead type ".\BuildRelease.ps1". See "get-help about_Command_Precedence" for more details.

So the last error gives you a correction - use .\BuildRelease.ps1 instead of just
BuildRelease.ps1.

The earlier errors look like there's a typo in the script, which is weird. Can you check line 394 to see whether it say
$target_vs.number -in $vstarget or $target_vs.number - in $vstarget (it should
not have a space between - and in). It's possible you may need a PowerShell update if older versions didn't understand the
-in operator.

The other error that you're getting is because your PowerShell doesn't understand the
-in operator. This was added for PowerShell 3.0, so you probably have something older (if this is Windows 7, then it shipped with 2.0). I recommend installing PS 4.0 from here:

Make sure that you have all the prerequisites that are outlined on the
build instructions page (you can skip the HPC and Kinect stuff by unloading the corresponding projects in the solution; there's no such option for BuildRelease.ps1 tho). Also make sure that you have followed all the steps there about installing the prereq
MSI, adding skip verification registry entries etc.

Project file contains ToolsVersion="12.0". This toolset may be unknown or missing, in which case you may be able to resolve this by installing the appropriate version of MSBuild, or the build may hav
e been forced to a particular ToolsVersion for policy reasons. Treating the project as if it had ToolsVersion="4.0". For more information, please see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=291333.
Project file contains ToolsVersion="12.0". This toolset may be unknown or missing, in which case you may be able to resolve this by installing the appropriate version of MSBuild, or the build may hav
e been forced to a particular ToolsVersion for policy reasons. Treating the project as if it had ToolsVersion="4.0". For more information, please see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=291333.
Analysis -> C:\Users\taillet\Downloads\pytools_386a7f844a8e\BuildOutput\Release11.0\Binaries\Analysis\Microsoft.PythonTools.Analysis.dll

Hmm... it looks like I was wrong before when I said that you need to use the VS command prompt for the version of VS that you're building this for. Or at least this is no longer true for VS 2012. Our build scripts rely on MSBuild 12.0 (the version that
shipped with VS 2013) - that's what ToolsVersion="12.0" is for. OTOH, you're building with MSBuild that came with VS 2012, which doesn't recognize this version.

I'm not quite sure whether that is the reason for WiX errors that you're seeing. I haven't seen these before. I wonder if it somehow picks up a different version of WiX, that you perhaps have installed globally? The ones that it is supposed to be using is part
of the source bundle, in Tools\Wix.